Table of Contents
Overview
We all know Tove, that scrappy survivalist that’s been absolutely necessary to give shotguns a fighting chance in general raid teams. Without her, the concept of ‘shotgun meta’ wouldn’t have taken off, maybe not even exist.
I think we all found it odd that someone so meta would receive a favorite item. In fact, it seems rather unnecessary, given how relevant she and the team is still. The shotgun team hasn’t exactly been threatened out of raids by anything so far.
So why a favorite item so soon? Those that use her would know why!
In spite of how meta she is, Tove has always suffered from one glaring flaw: her inconsistency. Her Skill 1 having a max 5% proc chance per shot fired is the bane of anyone using her in a serious manner, since it is so central to the entirety of Tove’s kit.
Tove’s buff on burst is reliant on how many stacks her S1 is at. The attack speed and crit rate from S2 are only continuous if S1 manages to remain at max stacks on herself, and the flat +2 ammo and bit of crit damage to shotgun units per stack is always helpful.
Yet at a 5% proc chance per round fired, combined with reloads, there was always the chance that a proc couldn’t be generated in time and all the stacks would disappear. The arduous process of regenerating them in time for the next burst would occur, or else, be forced to reset the ‘bricked run’.
Favorite item to the rescue!
Honestly, Tove’s item is simultaneously disappointing, yet amazing for her. It barely changed anything for her kit. But what it did change has turned her from an inconsistent, relatively low up-time buffer to the complete opposite and that’s enough to make the shotgun team better than before.
The changes
Phase 1
Changes her Skill 1: Emergency-Crafted Bullets in the most important way.
■ Activates when performing 10 normal attack(s). Affects self.
Emergency-Crafted Bullets: Reload 5.31% of the magazine.
■ Activates during Emergency-Crafted Bullets. Affects all allies.
Temporary Modification: Max Ammunition Capacity ▲ 2, stacks up to 3 time(s) and lasts for 5 sec.
Critical Damage ▲ 5.24% for 5 sec.
That’s right, the RNG is just completely gone from the skill. After firing a certain amount of bullets, starting from 25 at rank 1 and scaling down to 10 at level 9, Tove will generate a stack of her S1. Leveling the skill now affects how soon one hits max stacks.
Considering an Assault Rifle’s firing rate of 12 shots per second, generating a stack will always refresh the duration of current stacks and the duration of the stacks is still 5 seconds. Tove will always be able to maintain stacks regardless of skill level with the modified S1, since she’ll always shoot faster than the requirement within 5 seconds.
With the guaranteed proc rate, maxing out S1 isn’t as necessary anymore. It’s still recommended to hit max stacks in time for the first burst of the boss fight!
Because it still has the ammo refill effect when it procs, it’s entirely possible to ensure Tove never stops shooting with enough max ammo OLs and a high enough skill level without needing Bastion. Ammo refills are always based on max ammo, rather than her base ammo of 60.
Phase 2
Changes her Burst: Miracle of Makeshifts’ duration to keep up with the other defining member of the shotgun team, Soda: Twinkling Bunny.
Cooldown: 20s
■ Affects all allies.
Miracle of Makeshifts: ATK ▲ 2.32% of caster’s ATK. Mirrors the stack count of Temporary Modification for 15 sec.
■ Affects all shotgun-wielding allies.
Miracle of Makeshifts: ATK ▲ 24.21% of caster’s ATK. Mirrors the stack count of Temporary Modification for 15 sec.
From 10 seconds to 15 seconds means that Bunny Soda’s extended burst time isn’t as detrimental to the shotgun team. The longer uptime also puts Tove’s buffs on par with other buffers, considering how less often the shotgun team can burst due to Bunny Soda’s burst time extension, which always activates regardless of who is bursting as long as she is on the team.
Phase 3
Changes her Skill 2: Modification Successful in the least impactful way.
■ Only activates when Temporary Modification is fully stacked. Affects all allies.
Critical Rate ▲ 10.08% continuously.
■ Only activates when Temporary Modification is fully stacked. Affects all shotgun-wielding allies.
Attack Speed ▲ 42.24% continuously.
Honestly, a little disappointing it didn’t change the attack speed, but perhaps it would’ve been too broken given the favorite item was released alongside Dorothy: Serendipity. The crit rate is nice, changing the shotgun team’s crit rate from ~18% to 25% (15% base). It can be postponed for as long as one wants. The first two phases are absolutely mandatory compared to it.
Conclusion
Despite the fact that it barely changed anything, the things it did change are enough to revitalize Tove and the shotgun team to higher raid relevance, potentially even campaign relevance if your shotguns are strong enough.
A completely reliable S1 for the rest of her kit, extended burst buff duration to give shotgun team greater DPS over the long run and an effectively permanent attack speed buff on top of it all without needing to reset a ton to get that ‘lucky’ run. It all combines to make the shotgun team both consistent and powerful, especially as future potential team options are added.
Tove’s favorite item is absolutely a must get for anyone that was already using the shotgun team in raids, and makes the shotgun team a much more considerable option over anyone that hasn’t committed to it yet.
Also, given how Tove’s buffs on burst scale with caster attack, it would definitely be a good use of silver mileage to max out Tove’s attack as much as possible while she’s available in the mileage shop.
Teams
This team wants a Burst 1 with Cooldown Reduction as flex.
There’s just so many options for Tove in the shotgun team, and they’ve all gotten better with her favorite item existing. No longer needing Bunny Alice to maintain max S1 stacks, and with it, max attack speed means teams can go reliably on the offensive, boss DPS permitting.
Skill Recommendations
Minimum
Skill 1: 3
Skill 2: 7
Burst: 7
Thanks to Tove’s favorite item completely removing the RNG of S1 entirely, there is no longer a need to level the skill to 9 at a minimum to boost reliability of proccing the skill as soon as possible. It can be as low as 3, where the bullet count is 20 per stack, to ensure Tove can max stack s1 within one magazine, assuming no ammo OLs.
However, at this low of a skill level, it’s not possible to have max stacks ready for the first burst. Due to an AR’s fire rate of 12/s, at 20 rounds per stack, it takes 5 seconds to stack S1 to max. This is too slow for the shotgun team’s typical burst gen to have max stacks ready in time for the first burst of the boss fight, so one would have to delay the first burst by a second or two, which can be detrimental, as small as it sounds.
Recommended/Max
Skill 1: 6 (9)
Skill 2: 10
Burst: 10
At level 6, the bullet requirement goes down to 15, which takes an AR 3.75 seconds to max stack. That’ll be either is just barely enough to keep up with the shotgun team’s burst gen, or one can delay burst just slightly to use it alongside max stacks of S1, depending on the team comp’s burst gen.
At level 9, S1 takes 2.5 seconds to stack, so it will always have max stacks for the first burst of the boss fight, regardless of team comp. Even though it’s no longer necessary to have S1 at level 9 compared to before, it is still more optimal this way, to burst as soon as possible.
I was wondering if this changes anything with Alice: Wonderland Bunny’s rankings? A big reason she got ranked higher on the tier list on site was the fact she “fixed” Tove’s randomness. Don’t get me wrong she still is useful in certain bossing scenarios , just moreso as one of the best healers.